Education
Stars Well
Offline night sky atlas
MACfor Mac
- $4.99 one-time purchase
- No account
- No ads or app telemetry
Screenshots
5 images · Mac
Stars Well is a night sky atlas for the Mac, made for anyone who likes to step outside and actually find things. You pick your city from a built-in list, and it draws the real sky over your location right now — every naked-eye star tinted by its true color, the Milky Way, and the Sun, Moon, and planets where they truly sit. Wind the date and time forward or back, toggle the constellation lines and labels, and tap a constellation to identify it.
All 88 constellations get a printable star chart, the lore behind the name, their brightest stars, the best month to see them, and directions for finding them from a landmark you already know. You can search by name, by nickname, or by a bright star like Vega or Antares.
For deep-sky nights, the full catalog of 110 Messier objects is ranked for your exact place and time — highest and brightest first — with a note on whether each needs your eyes, binoculars, or a telescope, plus rise and set times and a finder chart. Mark what you have seen in a private observing log, track your progress toward all 110, and export the logbook as text. Session Pack rolls the dark window, Moon brightness, best targets, and a gear checklist into one plan you can carry outside.
Positions are computed live with the standard Meeus and JPL algorithms — accurate to the eye and good for learning, though this is a companion for looking up, not a telescope-control or navigation tool. It works entirely offline and never touches the network: no account, no subscription, no Location Services, and nothing collected.
About Stars Well
Starwell turns your Mac into a calm window on the night sky. Pick your city, and it shows you the real sky overhead - every naked-eye star, all 88 constellations with their stories, the 110 famous deep-sky objects with a tonight's-best observing planner, the Moon's exact phase, and where the planets are tonight.
No account. No subscription. No ads. No Location Services.
A LIVE PLANETARIUM
See the whole sky over your location, right now or at any date and time. Stars are placed from the Yale Bright Star Catalog and tinted by their true colour, the Milky Way arcs overhead, and the Sun, Moon and planets sit exactly where they belong. Toggle constellation lines, star names, the grid and the horizon. Click any constellation to identify it in a tap.
ALL 88 CONSTELLATIONS
A beautiful, printable star chart for every constellation in the sky, each with the lore behind its name, the brightest stars and deep-sky sights to look for, the best month to see it, and clear directions for finding it from a landmark you already know. Search by name, by nickname, or by a star like Vega or Antares.
DEEP SKY - TONIGHT'S BEST
All 110 Messier objects — the galaxies, nebulae and star clusters that backyard astronomers chase — in one offline catalog. Starwell ranks them for your exact place and time, putting the highest and brightest first, and tells you whether each one needs just your eyes, a pair of binoculars, or a telescope. Every object comes with its type, brightness, host constellation, rise and set times, a finder chart, and a short note on what it is. Mark what you've seen in a private observing log with the date, your gear, and a note, track your progress toward all 110, and export your logbook as a text file. Nothing leaves your Mac.
SESSION PACK
Turn tonight's calculations into a field-ready checklist. Session Pack gathers the dark-window summary, Moon brightness, naked-eye limit, best targets, timeline events, and a gear checklist into one clean plan you can copy or save before heading outside.
TONIGHT, AT A GLANCE
Open Starwell and see what the night holds: sunset and the start of true darkness, the Moon's phase and rise-and-set, which planets are up and the constellation each one is sitting in, and any major meteor shower peaking this week.
THE MOON & THE PLANETS
The current phase drawn to scale, illumination, age, and the dates of the next new, quarter and full moons. For each planet: its brightness, distance, the constellation it's crossing, and tonight's rise, transit and set times.
MADE FOR YOUR MAC
Set your current sky as the desktop wallpaper, or save any sky or constellation chart as a high-resolution image. Jump between sections from the menu bar or with keyboard shortcuts.
ACCURATE & HONEST
Positions are computed live using the standard Meeus and JPL/Standish algorithms — accurate to the eye and wonderful for learning. Starwell is a companion for looking up, not a navigation or telescope-control tool.
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Starwell works entirely offline and never touches the network. You choose your city from a built-in list — there's no Location Services, no account, and nothing is ever collected.
Look up more often.
A Shadowfetch app. Published on the App Store by Robert Corbin.